I'm just back from a work trip to Perth and Darwin. Short of something to
do for the weekend in WA I thought I'd check out Frank O'Connors Noisy Scrub
Bird site at Cheyne's Beach. I've never gone looking for these before, but
seeing as Cheyne's beach is also the spot where the Dibbler (a large
antechinus) was rediscovered in the 1960s I thought it sounded like a good
spot. I stayed at the caravan park there and while drinking a cup of tea at
dawn could see a tame Red-eared Firetail hopping around the grass in front
of me. I then walked to the corner of the road where Frank had seen the
scrubbird. Heard one calling straightaway, walked into the heath and less
than 60 seconds later was a metre away from a scubbird calling from just
under the top of a bush. Decent enough views of most bits of the bird,
albeit a section at a time. So as I am led to believe that these birds are
generally a bit tricky to see I endorse Frank's recommendation!
Lots of other birds around there most notable of which was a spotted
harrier. No dibblers though.
Up to Darwin I thought I'd spend the weekend in Kakadu. Mainly chasing
mammals there but while filling the car with fuel at Jabiru I looked up to
see a Red Goshawk buzzing around the servo. The other exciting stuff in
Kakadu was mainly mammalian - best of which was a Brush-tailed Rabbit Rat,
Arnhem Rock Rat and Black Wallaroo.
cheers
Jon
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message
"unsubscribe birding-aus" (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
|
